ON OUR WAY HOME---TWICE (Part VI)

After a rough night we got up early t head home. But on the way our spirits rose and we decided to take a small detour to a place called:
Adam-ondi-Ahman. This is a very sacred place to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It had been many years since the last time I had been there, so I was very grateful to be able to go again, and to be there with Momma.





I think Momma looked so beautiful here. As you can see, this place is a small valley covered in farm land. I think it also includes some of the hills that encircle the valley. It's a very quiet and a very peaceful place to be. It was nice to share it with Momma and Vaughn.








Here's me and Vaughn. If you look closely, Vaughn is not extremely happy to stop and take a picture. He was so excited to get out of his car seat and run around, that he wanted nothing to do with taking pictures. I must say though, he still managed a slight smile.









We thought it would be fun to try to get all three of us in a shot together. Vaughn's a little more unhappy in this one. Momma did a great job of taking the picture.








On the way home from this lovely place, everything was going just fine until all of a sudden Vaughn let out another blood-curdling scream. Momma had just barely moved her purse out of the way when Vaughn blew chunks everywhere again. It was worse this time because Momma wasn't back there to catch the throw-up. Momma and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. Since we had been through this before, we worked like a well-oiled machine compared to the first time. We got Vaughn out, cleaned him off again on the side of the road. This time he had more privacy though, because Momma held a blanket up to cover him. I got the inside of the van cleaned up and sprayed while Momma did the car seat. Once Vaughn had thrown-up he was quite content to sit in the front seat and play with whatever he could get his hands on!

We put a towel on Vaughn's car seat to block the moisture, and then we were on our way again. Vaughn was very happy and very warm, and he went right to sleep. The little stinker! We must have sprayed about a gallon of Febreeze and anti-bacterial spray in the van. It still took a while for the smell to go away though.











We finally arrived back in Iowa in the afternoon on May 2nd. For the next few days we got settled and packed up again. Then on the evening of Friday, May 4th, Poopa and Vaughn and I set out for Utah. Vaughn still had an ear infection, so the doctor told me not to take him home on an airplane. Then Ben and Emily's car broke down, and Poopa decided he would drive out their extra van for Ben and Emily to have, and he would take us home. It worked out perfectly!

Poopa drove straight through the night. We hit some major thunderstorms in the Midwest, and they kept me up. I thought we were going to be taken away by a tornado. And the lightning was so bad that I thought if a tornado didn't take us a way, our van would be blown up from being hit by a lightning bolt! Luckily though we made it through, because we had to stop at Little America to see the Emperor Penguin and get ice cream cones! I remember as a little girl that our family would stop at the Little America in Wyoming to get ice cream cones....it was a tradition of ours. And now I wanted to carry on that tradition with my kid! That sounds so weird for me to say that. I feel old!






I tried to get Vaughn excited about his first Little America Ice Cream Cone. This is a big event! He seemed to understand and here he is with Poopa, waiting in great anticipation for his cone.









And here's Vaughn thinking, "What the heck is this?!?!" Vaughn had never even seen an ice cream cone before, so he didn't know what to think of it! He must have only had one or two little licks, and then he was through. Oh well, at least he's not addicted to sugar, right?








We did run into a snowstorm right outside of the Little America stop. We couldn't believe what we were seeing, and we thought we might have to turn back and stay the night there. But luckily we were able to get through, even though there were some crashes around us. Vaughn was an excellent kid the whole way home. He didn't really fuss at all. Poopa was really surprised with how well he travelled. He even said, "Don't expect this to happen again. This will probably be the last time you can travel like this with him."

We were so excited to get home! I started to celebrate when we were half a mile from home. I could see our house, and I said, "I'm just so grateful Vaughn hasn't thrown up again." Well, then all of a sudden Vaughn started to fuss. Then he let out a giant scream and.....HE LAUNCHED ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!! I couldn't believe it! I think it was just to spite me. We were literally 30 seconds from the house, and he launched! Poopa and I just started laughing. We got into the driveway and took Vaughn straight into the bathroom. Poopa said, "At least you know how to take the car seat apart, clean it and put it back together again!" He was right!

So that ends my two weeks of fun out in Iowa and Arkansas! THANK YOU SO MUCH MOMMA AND POOPA FOR EVERYTHING! IT WAS A BLAST!!!!!

Love, Lisa